"There are no outsiders here, I love you, but you can say it's okay!"

Zhu Yunxiu called out his beloved, and Li Zhigang suddenly became a little surprised.

But he still controlled himself, and his face showed a worry about the country and the people.

"Although the imperial court has not issued a direct edict, the promotion of the local stalls in the north is earlier than that in the southern provinces!" Li Zhigang continued to speak, "I think it has been several years! And this time I went to the north to check it carefully, which is indeed quite effective!"

"The population of northern provinces is not large, and abolishing the tax on the tax will help breed the population. If the people dare to have children, they don't have to hide in the names of wealthy families when they are born. The land collection tax has enriched the government's treasury, which is more conducive to the government's census of land acres, taxes and other matters at a glance!"

"This moral policy is not only small and medium-sized farmers, but also gentry and landlords are happy to see it! But the problem lies in paying land tax!"

Zhu Yunyu listened and nodded.

While Li Zhigang was speaking, he said to the turtle-shamed standing outside, "Give Li Aiqing a bowl of hot tea!" Then, he smiled and said to Li Zhigang again, "Don't hurry, talk slowly! Have a sip of tea first, and after that, I'll have a meal with me!"

Suddenly, Li Zhigang's heart thrilled.

To have dinner with the emperor was a treatment that only Li Jinglong, Xu Huizu, Zhu Gaochi and others could receive. Even the six ordinary ministers were not allowed.

"I am really Jian Zai's heart now!" Li Zhigang was filled with fanaticism and was overjoyed.

"Do you have any dishes you like to eat? I'll let the imperial kitchen prepare?" Zhu Yunxiu smiled again.

Once again, Li Zhigang was so happy that he was stunned.

Having a meal with the emperor, the emperor asked him to order food?

"Well, let's do it!" Zhu Yunxi continued to smile, "I'm afraid you won't tell the truth! It's cold today, I'll let me add a pepper pork belly chicken in the imperial kitchen, let's have something hot!"

"The emperor is deeply grateful to me, and I will never forget it!" Li Zhigang stood up and saluted, "What kind of virtue is me? I am so beloved by the emperor? I... I am ashamed!"

"Get up!" Zhu Yunxiu helped him, "You, eat steadily! Say whatever you want. Since I use you, I can trust you!" As he said, he smiled, "You continue to say, why are there any disadvantages in the field tax?"

"The people have always paid taxes for grain, cotton, linen, silk and other items!" Li Zhigang choked up a few times and said, "But the land tax set by the court is one acre of land and one piece of silver dollars."

As he said that, he spread his hands and said, "There is not much money, but the key to the problem is that farmers and people don't have money!"

Suddenly, Zhu Yunxi's expression became solemn.

Li Zhigang is right, where does the money get from the hands of farmers?

At this time, it was still a small peasant economy. Farmers' homes were self-sufficient, and they mostly bartered. Eggs were exchanged for salt, weaving cloths were exchanged for iron, and they had to eat grain in addition to imperial grain!

As for the current agricultural conditions and productivity, the yield per mu is just average. The one that can produce three or four stones is good land, which is good land in the land of fish and rice.

Assuming that even if everyone has such good fields at home, careful calculations will only fill their stomachs. People in these days are particularly edible because they have no oil and water in their stomachs, and they are all big belly men.

A family of five has three strong laborers, not women and children. Just these three strong laborers can at least two or three kilograms of food per day.

By this calculation, one person can be about one thousand kilograms a year, and three strong laborers are about three thousand kilograms a year.

Even if your family has ten acres of land, can you eat it openly? Will you eat it if you have a strong laborer? Do you want to pay the imperial grain? Do you want to leave some surplus grain?

Moreover, who can have ten acres of good land?

Even if there is a lot of land, the family has dozens of acres. However, the extra expenses are also high. During the busy farming period, people have to be hired, and there are still big animals in the family who eat more than people.

So no matter how good the lives of the people are, they will be very tight!

Food is money for them, but it does not equal the money the court wants.

"Local officials often want to save trouble and achieve political achievements, and only need money for food. Farmers have no money in their hands and have to pay taxes to buy the grain for money!" Li Zhigang said, and his expression suddenly became vicious, "The question is here again, who will I sell it to?"

"Every prefecture has official warehouses, and they will be sold at high prices in the year of high costs and low prices in the year of disaster!" Li Zhigang said again, "When I talk about this, I have to talk about official warehouses again!"

What he mentioned was the system of Changping, which lasted from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Ming Dynasty, and later the Qing Dynasty. It was to use state behavior to avoid famine. Among them, it was changed by Wang Anshi during the Northern Song Dynasty, called the Qingmiao Method. Then to the Qing Dynasty, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Uprising made the Qing Dynasty full of holes, and Changping was no longer in line with the reality, and it was only a name for it.

Zhu Yunxiu nodded, "You said, I'll listen!"

"The official warehouse is the foundation of my Ming Dynasty, but I think the most unreliable one is the official warehouse!" Li Zhigang said loudly, "On the books, the permanent settlements of the prefectures in each prefecture are in full. But as long as you go and check, there is nothing that is not short of weight!"

"Preventing self-stealing is the norm. If you are really honest, it is a strange thing!" Li Zhigang continued, "and the country has been living up to its daily life, and the grain collected over the years has changed from new grain to old grain. Even if no one is custodial, the loss of legal and compliant is just an astronomical figure!"

"Furthermore, the people sell grain to the official warehouse. One official warehouse is to use a large bucket to the small bucket. One pound of grain can cost you at most seven taels. You often deliberately use it as a way to bully the people!"

"In order to pay taxes, the farmers and the people had no choice but to pinch their noses and accept it! But even so, the money for selling grain could not fall into their pockets. After the bill was changed, they still paid taxes to the government."

"In this way, the government has also paid for the money. The farmers have been busy this year! They have been in vain when they catch up with the good weather and can make a living. Once natural disasters occur, they will rely on the court to provide relief!"

Speaking of this, Li Zhigang became more and more energetic, but he couldn't help but feel a little dry.

He picked up the tea bowl and took a sip, Runrun's throat and continued, "This is the drawback of the official warehouse. I will talk about the other side. The farmers do not sell them to the official warehouse, but to the grain merchants..." As he said, he paused, "When I just talked about the official warehouse, I missed one. I discovered a phenomenon in the northern provinces, that is, some governments do not allow farmers to sell grain to the grain merchants at all!"

Zhu Yunxi's face became colder and colder.

The government does not allow grain merchants to buy or sell them, but it is nothing more than just one thing, monopoly!

The worse the emperor's face was, the more excited Li Zhigang was.

He continued to speak, "It is actually not much better to sell grain merchants, and there is no businessman! The court's law was to collect high prices in a bumper year, but in a bumper year, there was a lot of food, and farmers wanted to use money, so those profiteers would sit down and lower the price. In the year of disaster, he would definitely hoard goods and start the price!"

"But compared with the official warehouse, grain merchants are better at managing and checking!"

"Actually, to be fair, business is like this. They are sold at low prices and at high prices. Although grain merchants are not good, grain rice is related to people's livelihood. Whole-owned merchants are trafficking and circulation, and they are helping them in a steady stream!"

"And, through the hands of merchants, the fluctuations in grain prices are inevitably affected by the year on a large scale, but after all, the imperial court can control it."

"When I said this, Rong Chen said one more thing. In fact, no matter what the market price of grain is, farmers' lives are hard. Although it is ruthless, it is a fact. In my opinion, it is better to sell it to grain merchants than to rely on official warehouses, at least the scale is not fake!"

Zhu Yunxi's slender fingers hit the table, thinking in his heart, "You continue!"

Li Zhi seemed to be completely exhausted and continued, "There is another disadvantage in the official warehouse, that is, the personnel affairs are too bloated and the behavior is too rigid!"

"According to the Ming Dynasty law, once there is a disaster in the local area, the official warehouse must release grain. But who will release it? Who will order it? It is still unclear! The local officials report it to the center, and the center is reporting it to the emperor, and then issuing an order. As a result, if delayed, a small disaster will turn into a major disaster!"

"Furthermore, the official warehouse is stored in the city. Once there is a disaster in the countryside, who dares to let the victims enter the city? Those farmers and people from remote places travel through mountains and rivers to buy low-priced grain? Not to mention whether they have money, do they have the strength to walk into the city?"

Li Zhigang's words seemed to be a hammer and a stick were actually expressed very clearly.

That is, the current food reserve system is no longer applicable to the current economic situation.

This is the core content he wants to express. As for what he said, even if the farmers and people have planted for a lifetime, they still have no money in their hands. Even if the food price is at the sky, they still want to sell food at a low price. In fact, he doesn't care at all.
Chapter completed!